Herra Terra has been a local favorite for some time, but with the new EP “Hyperborean,” the synth-pop heavies seem to be digging deep into the musical zeitgeist, and consequently making a play for a wider audience. For a lesser band, this might prove a disappointment, but the album is invigorating and bracing, and shows the band at the height of its powers.

The word “Hyperborean,” according to the band’s Bandcamp page, comes from classic mythology, and refers to “one of a people supposed to have lived in a land of perpetual sunshine and abundance.” Herra Terra, which is performing March 22 at Ralph’s Chadwick Square Diner, wields this concept with pointed irony, offering up a blistering critique of a shallow culture and largely empty lives.

Leading off with the aptly named “Portals,” the band presents a stark portrait of Internet/television culture. The song begins with percussion and offbeat synthesizers that seem almost slightly out of synch, a moment of discord which presages the song’s opening lyrics: “Call me up with your satellite./ From your house, into the sky./ Fill me up with all your love./ And I don’t mind if sometimes you lie.”

The song ends on the lines “Don’t ever turn this off./ Don’t ever turn this off./ I’ll take your love. I’ll take a breath/ to make the sorrow fade away” … words which disappear into a pulse of fading electronic beats.

Is this, then, what the band sees when it looks at the marvels of technology that surround us, the everyday miracles of cell phones and electronic communication that seem to fill our every moment? It’s almost a brazen position for an electronic music-influenced band, but Herra Terra doesn’t waste time with brooding. Instead, the band pushes straight for the other side of their equation of dehumanization with “Buried Youth.”

“Everybody wants to shoot a fang into a bleeding vein,” sings vocalist John Tonelli, “So cut me a new line as a new high touches down./ Anybody that is sold with fame/ Is filled with a selfish gain./ So bleed me out of time as the new fire rushes out./ We’ll run dry what we keep alive.”

What’s remarkable is that this album manages to find the ephemeral point of balance between music intended to be listened to and music meant for dancing. There’s a visceral quality to the music, particularly in the multi-layered keyboard parts — offered alternately by Tonelli, guitarist Gregg Kusumah-Atmadja and bassist Adrian Bettencourt Andrade — and Shawn Pelkey’s percussion that propels the music, keeping its sometimes soul-searching themes from becoming overly ponderous. At its heart, this is largely an album about youth, and about holding onto youth in a world that seems poised to take everything from the moment you leave the cradle.

“This old town brings her down,” sings Tonelli, in the title track. “She found the sound that brings her home./ These old ties will always stay./ This is why we sold out./ Keep filling it with a riddled answer,/ Keep filling it with a rhythm and sound./ All lights burn out, that doesn’t matter right now.”

Again, that language of an emptiness desperately wanting to be filled. It’s a portrait that echoes throughout the album, to the point where existential questions seem increasingly sinister, notably on this song, which ends with the lines, “All lights burn out./ That doesn’t matter right now./ Cause we’re all to blame./ We’re so ready to go./ All knives are out./ We’re so ready to go.”

There are no easy answers to the nihilism presented in Herra Terra’s lyrics. Indeed, if there’s a counterpoint to be found, its in the band’s own music, in that vibrant passion that seems to infuse the largely electronic sounds with life.

The dark lyrics and vibrant music finally come together on the album’s closer, “Kittens.”

“Get talkin’ ’bout the things we try./ Grow up./ Get talkin’ and talkin’ bout the ones who love.”

It’s a small portrait of actual connection that the band paints here, but it works. As the refrain echoes out and the song ends, the listener is left with a small kernel of something to fill the aforementioned emptiness. And for a moment, it’s enough.

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